Brain Food: New Talks on the History and Future of Making

Most of what you’ll find at the East Bay Mini Maker Faire will inspire you to do something with your hands, but we also have fantastic talks about the history, future, and culture of making, talks that will feed your brain and spark your intellectual curiosity.

Nicholas de Monchaux is an architect, urbanist, writer, and Assistant Professor of Architecture & Urban Design at UC Berkeley. Nicholas is coming to EBMMF to talk about an unlikely but fascinating subject: the Apollo AL7 Pressure Garment, what Armstrong and Aldrin wore when they walked on the surface of the moon in 1969. As he puts it:

The Spacesuit they were wearing was made not by a military-industrial conglomerate, but by Playtex makers of women’s underwear. Not only was the suit hand-sewn by seamstresses whose usual work was sewing bras and girdles, but the head of suit development for Playtex, Lenny Sheperd, had only previously worked as a television repairman. An artifact of maker culture long-before-the-fact, the Apollo spacesuit holds crucial lessons for how we approach technology, and our own human nature.

Nicholas will be speaking at 1pm; check the final program for location.

After a mind-opening exploration of this artifact of maker culture, be sure to wrap up your visit to EBMMF with a look into the future. Tim O’Reilly, whose company O’Reilly Media produces the Maker Faire and MAKE magazine, and whom Inc and others have called the Oracle of Silicon Valley, is going to share his thoughts on what this all means in our closing speaking slot at 4pm. We asked him what he wanted to say in his talk, and here is how he replied:

Right now it’s easy to see the maker movement simply as a DIY movement. But of course the PC and Internet revolutions also began as DIY phenomena. Inside each of was set of enormous cultural and technological changes with implications far greater than were anticipated at the time. This talk will explore where the maker movement is taking us. We’ll cover everything from what the maker movement tells us about the future of manufacturing, health care, education and the economy.

Join us on October 16 for these and many more fascinating, informational, and inspirational talks.

One response to “Brain Food: New Talks on the History and Future of Making”

Hey, this sounds like a great idea. We were thinking of doing something similar in Brighton for 2012 (http://www.makerfairebrighton.com). I’d love to know how it goes, and it would be great to see/hear a recording.